THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 2, 1995 TAG: 9511020361
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
If you're looking for a civil debate on the issues in this election, you'd better not live in the 87th House District.
In the battle for Del. Howard Copeland's House seat, Copeland and Thelma Drake are saying some unpleasant things about each other.
She says he's a ``tax-and-spend liberal,'' is soft on crime, is misrepresenting his record, and is actually against better schools.
He says she lies shamelessly, doesn't understand state government and would be a ``rubber stamp'' for Gov. George F. Allen. This week he's taken to the airwaves with ads calling her ``Thelma and the Sleaze.''
Actually, they're beginning to sound a lot alike.
Copeland: ``Now challengers will say or do anything to get elected.''
Drake: ``It's like he would go to any length to get elected.''
The issues involved are substantial: How can Virginia best deal with violent crime? What is the best way to improve schools? Should state income from the lottery be given to localities or doled out from the state level?
But instead of explaining and debating the merits of their respective positions, Copeland and Drake mostly have talked about why the other person is hopelessly misguided and wrong.
The 87th District is principally in Norfolk, with a small slice of Virginia Beach. Two of its largest neighborhoods are Bayview, which is relatively stable and affluent with a large population of retirees, and Ocean View, which is more transient and lower-income.
Copeland has been in the House of Delegates for 15 years. The 51-year-old lawyer has worked his way up to the chairmanship of the Committee on the Chesapeake Bay and its Tributaries, and vice chairmanship of the Finance Committee. In 1993 he tried to rally support to run for attorney general, but gave up when he couldn't raise enough money.
Drake, 47, is a Realtor in Ocean View who came within 500 votes of defeating Copeland in 1993. Because of that, state Republicans decided this might be one of the races that could help them win three additional seats and, thus, a majority in the House. Allen appointed Drake to a state board, Virginia Housing and Community Development, so she could gain government experience.
The state GOP also funneled some money her way. Her campaign spending jumped to $85,000 for this effort, plus some advertising on her behalf but paid for by other Republicans.
She is still spending less than Copeland, who will shell out an estimated $140,000 by next week. State Democrats dropped $27,000 on Copeland's race in the past week alone.
All that money - the position pays $17,640 a year - has generated a great deal of heat, but shed little light on the issues.
Still, differences exist between the two, particularly on the interrelated issues of education and public safety.
Copeland believes, along with many Democrats, that Allen has moved too quickly toward spending money on prisons at the expense of education. Democrats backed Allen's effort to abolish parole but balked at his request for more money to build prisons because they said enough money already was budgeted. They restored $92 million to education budgets that Allen had proposed cutting.
Supporting Allen, Copeland said, means that Drake and other Republicans endorse his efforts to make those cuts: ``They have given Gov. Allen their proxy to vote any way he wants.''
Drake believes the General Assembly needs to firmly back Allen's anti-crime initiatives, including more money to build prisons. She did say this week that she disagreed with Allen's effort to cut money for the Tidewater Community College campus in downtown Norfolk, but she agrees with him that there probably is still wasteful spending in state education programs.
They also differ on gun control. Copeland has supported ``reasonable gun control,'' including the one-gun-a-month limit on handgun purchases and the banning of certain ``assault weapons.''
In 1993, Drake was endorsed by the National Rifle Association and has tended to be against gun control, although she was willing to regulate assault weapons and gun sales. She said she didn't want to own a gun. In 1995, however, she has come out strongly against gun control and even said she might learn to use a gun herself.
``Thank God we have the right to own guns,'' she said this week. ``I think what you've seen in that two-year time period is people feeling that much more unsafe. I have always supported a person's right to own a gun.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Democratic Del. Howard Copeland and GOP challenger Thelma Drake:
Instead of saying where they stand on the issues, they're trying to
knock each other down.
KEYWORDS: HOUSE OF DELEGATES RACE VIRGINIA 87TH DISTRICT
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